Report: Lillian Leptos
FareShare is a charitable organisation that is working to address food waste and hunger in Australia, by rescuing surplus food and using it to cook free, nutritious meals for people in need. From its commercial kitchen in Abbotsford, it produces thousands of meals a week that are distributed through other charities to people in need.
FareShare believes that if a person is in need of food, that food should be as nutritious and delicious as possible. FareShare kitchens are staffed by a team of volunteer cooks, guided by professional chefs but it’s the volunteers who are the heart of the organisation and make possible all the great work that they do.
After studying the causes and extent of food insecurity in class, the WRSC VCAL 11 Personal Development Skills students pulled up their sleeves and, working like a well-oiled machine, produced over 1000 pies and 600 Mexican meals under the instruction of the chef Polly and her adult helpers. Our students were involved in all the stages, including the mixing of ingredients, the preparation of the meals, the loading of the huge racks that were wheeled into the commercial ovens, unloading the cooked products and preparing them for wrapping and freezing.
They also experienced the cleaning and hygiene routines that are part of commercial kitchen work, as they scrubbed and sanitised the huge work benches and even the floors. The WRSC students were so impressive that they were selected to star in FareShare’s social media campaign next week, which incidentally is National Student Volunteer Week.
In Australia, the food insecurity problem is growing even though our country produces vast amounts of nutritious food. The problem of hunger is not caused by Australia not producing enough food. It’s caused by not everyone having the same access to food, and FareShare aims to help provide that access to those in need.
The WRSC Year 11 PDS students were a perfect match for volunteering at FareShare as the subject focuses on health, wellbeing, and community engagement. It helps students to understand and improve their potential as individuals and as members of their community.